Treating and wetting out fibrous material



Patented oa s, 1928. 1,686,836

UNITED STATES PATIENT oi-"rica- POTT, OI DRESDEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO GHEMISCHE ream POI-"1 & 60., O1 DBESDEN-N., GERMANY.

RAINIER HERMANN TREATING AND WETTING OUT FIBROUS MATERIAL.

No Drawing. Original application flied 111137 26, 1924,.Seria1 No. 728,494, and in Germany July 10, 1988.

Divided and this application filed September 28, 1925. Serial No. 58,184.

This invention has reference to improvements in the art of treating fibrous material, textile and similar goods, leather and the like with a view of increasing their liquid-absorb- 5 ing, penetrating and imbibing qualitles, and

it is particularly intended to devise means 0 overcoming the difliculty of uniform penetration of the goods in the employment of aci baths for the preparation of the material in various branches of the textile, leather and allied industries which for various purposes are used in the presence of soaps, oils, sulphurized oils and preparations produced therefrom which in various methods of treatment, for example in the scouring, bucking or steeping of fibrous material are employed both for the purpose of improving the wetting out effects as well as with a view of arriving at a uniform absor tion of the coloring matters in the dyeing o fibrous material and in similar or equivalent methods of treatment.

In the branches of the fiber treating art where use is made of acid liquors for the conversion or preparation of the material, as for instance in the carbonization of woolen fabrics there is the difliculty that the acid liquor is frequently not evenly distributed in view of the rather water-repellent qualities of the fiber so that the acid liquor will be unevenly distributed on and throughout the particular goods under treatment, and this difliculty is further increased by the presence of soaps and fatty substances or of unsaponifiable oily or fatty material. This is particularly noticeable in the treatment of preliminarily washed goods, when the rinsing water contained therein is unequally distributed.

, In accordance with my invention these difiiculties will be overcome by the employment of salts of the sulphur acids and aromatic compounds,particularly of sulphonates of the naphthalene series or ofhydrogen-addL tion products thereof, such as tetrahydronaphthalene and combinations and compounds thereof. When these salts are added to the acid liquor and the material is immersed therein or is otherwise treated with the acid liquor and with the sulphonates referred to, the uniformity of distribution of d assisted, so that the the treating liquor as well as of the soaps, oils and other substances used in the fiber-treating art is vastly increased. At the same time the sulphonated compounds referred to appear to have a kind of emulsifying or dissolving aoformity'of penetration are augmented and presence of soaps and fatty residues is no longer an obstacle to the wetting out of fibrous material. The sulphonates referred to may be used alone or in combination with each other and/or in comf tion and, by this means, the speed'and unibination with hydrocarbons, alcohols or ketones, particularly with high molecular alcohols. Besides, the sulphonates employed are adapted to increase the vividity of colors and, on the other hand, they act as a protective agent for preventing any injurious action of acids and any decomposition and depositing'of soaps or saponaceous products. These advantages among other uses will produce particularly favorable results'in the acidfulling of the cloth and felt industries, in the carbonization of wool, in the treatment of leather and as an addition to-acid finish dyes (wool dyeing).

As an instance of carrying the invention into practise I may add a few grams of tetrahydronaphthalene B sodium sulphonate to a liter of an acid bath in the presence of hydrocarbons or of high molecular alcohols. I may also use as an instance alkyl derivatives of such propylnaphthalene sodium sulphonate.

Obviously, the invention is not restricted to the particular substances-and ways of treatment herein mentioned by way of exemplification only and the vinvention may be embodied in modifications thereof, so as to suit particular working conditions and the nature of the goods under treatment, and without deviating from the scope and the spiritof the invention, except as stated in the appended claims.

I claim I 1. The process of treating fibrous materials, which com rises adding sulphonic acid salts of substituted aromatic polynuclear hydrocarbons to an acid fiber treating bath.

2. The process of treating fibrous materisulphonates, such as for instance iso- The process of treating fibrous materials,which comprises subjecting such mate rials .to the action of an acid bath to which the sodium salt of iso-propgl naphthalene sulphonic acid has been adde I RAINERHERMANN POTTQ 

